Review by Tim Robins
Do you like movies about Gladiators? I do, and you will too, if you catch Gladiator II in the cinema. For an audience of a certain age, the film’s scenes in Rome recall the kind of wonderful, colour covers of Look and Learn magazine – and the nostalgia doesn’t stop there. Amid the spectacle, there’s enough intrigue, plotting and betrayal to fill a season of I,Claudius, and even Derek Jacobi is in attendance again.
It’s been 24 years since Gladiator (2000), the beloved hit from director Ridley Scott, whose tale of a Roman general, betrayed and sold into slavery only to rise through the ranks of Gladiators won several Oscars, including Best Actor in a Leading Role for Russell Crowe, the titular Gladiator, in 2001. I’d be surprised if Gladiator II will do as well, but it certainly won’t be for a lack of trying.
Gladiator II is set 16 years after the first movie. We meet orphaned Lucius Veras and his wife Arishat in Numidia, where their lives are torn asunder by invading Romans led by Marcus Acacius. Veras is sold into slavery, taken to Rome and becomes a gladiator in order to exact revenge on Acacias. But the gladiator’s path exposes a world of politics, and reveals the true story of his apparent abandonment by his Mother. It’s a tale that provides opportunity for spectacular action, but it is the character drama that kept me watching.
If there’s going to be another Star Wars trilogy, I hope Scott is asked to write and direct it, because Gladiator II shows why characters trump bizarre arena action every time. There’s a lot of work that needs to go into setting up an arena fight and make the audience care about the outcome. (Yes, the arena scene in Star Wars: Attack of the Clones is haunting my memory here).
Gladiator II’s cast is perfect. Veras is played by Paul Mescal, with the profile and intensity of a young Richard Harris. In appearance, Verus is an impassioned, violent foreshadowing of today’s post hipster bro culture. There’s a clear appeal for those who enjoy seeing manly men doing manly things such as strangling murderous monkeys, a one-on-one rhino takedown and just all-round butchery.
A lot of reviews have focussed on Denzel Washington as Macrinus, the gladiator trainer who takes a shine to Veras, after recognising him as a man filled with rage. What hegemonic exemplar of masculinity isn’t supposed to be filled with rage? The reviews tend to hail Washington as the stand-out centre of the film, without whom the film would be less entertaining. I disagree. It is fun to watch Macrinus’s machinations, but Washington’s performance is neither as camp or flamboyant as other critics describe. Instead, he fits right in. If anyone steals a scene or two, it’s Matt Lucas, as Master of Ceremonies.
It is Connie Neilsen as Lucilla, Acacias’s lover and Veras’s mother, who commands attention. She appears monumental and statuesque. Seated, it is as if she is carved from marble. In many ways, Gladiator II is her film. Lucilla is the fulcrum for a kind of oedipal tragedy in which her son must kill her lover, claim his mother and become his father.
There is one brilliant shot, in which Lucilla hands Veras his father’s signet ring. For a moment, the ring is held against the backdrop of Veras’s scared arm and bared chest. In this shot we see the physical conflict that has brought Veras to this moment and his vulnerability standing before his mother. I was awestruck by this moment, much more so than the opening attack on Numidia. That’s spectacular for sure but never escapes the feel of CGI.
This is a film quite literally told through the characters’ eyes. The actor’s eyes command our attention. They seem almost cartoonishly large, an effect achieved through camera focus, lighting and more, I’m sure. The bulging eyes of Emperor Geta (Joseph Quinn) suggest an ever-present instability of mind every bit as much as the malformed body of his twin, the Emperor Caracalla (Fred Hetchinger. The eye-acting in the movie deserves its own Oscar.
My main recollection of the first Gladiator movie was the way the content and publicity desperately sought to ward off the homoeroticism associated with gladiator movies. So audiences were assured that there were indeed female gladiators and the entire story was orchestrated around one gladiator’s heterosexuality demonstrated by his desire to be reunited with his hetronormative family.
Gladiator II is less on-the-nose but it achieves something similar by conflating royalty with sexual and physical “degeneration” – we are invited to see the twin emperors as diseased and deformed reflections of Rome’s founders – Romulus and Remus. Of course, that hasn’t stopped the collected nit-wits of YouTube from claiming that Gladiator II is a ‘woke’ attack on masculinity. It really isn’t.
There wasn’t one moment where I felt like exclaiming, “Infamy! Infamy! It’s all in for me!” – even when the spectacular landscapes of Malta (where much of the film was shot), the CGI cityscapes and the bizarre gladiator fights fade in the final act. Gladiator IIgave me exactly what I wanted – a reason to return to the cinema. A funny thing happened on the way home. I realised that I’d watched a genuine, cinematic epic.
Tim Robins
Gladiator II is in cinemas now | Show times at gladiator.movie
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• Coming Soon: Gladiator II: The Art and Making of the Ridley Scott Film
By John Walsh (AmazonUK Affiliate Link)
The official behind-the-scenes companion to Sir Ridley Scott’s highly anticipated sequel to Gladiator
Due for release on 27th March 2025, this definitive volume takes readers deep into the extraordinary production of Gladiator II. Exploring the revolutionary special effects and breathtaking artistry that went into re-creating the grandeur of ancient Rome on a truly epic scale,Gladiator II: The Art and Making of the Ridley Scott Film features storyboards, unit photography, concept art, character and costume sketches, and an array of props and ephemera, offering a comprehensive look at the creative process behind one of the most eagerly awaited sequels of our time.
With a foreword by Sir Ridley Scott and exclusive interviews with the cast – including Paul Mescal, Denzel Washington, Pedro Pascal, Connie Nielsen, and more – as well as insights from production designers, armorers, and the visual effects team, the book grants an insider’s look at this cinematic epic and is an essential companion to the film.
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A freelance journalist and Doctor Who fanzine editor since 1978, Tim Robins has written on comics, films, books and TV programmes for a wide range of publications including Starburst, Interzone, Primetime and TV Guide.
His brief flirtation with comics includes ghost inking a 2000AD strip and co-writing a Doctor Who strip with Mike Collins. Since 1990 he worked at the University of Glamorgan where he was a Senior Lecturer in Cultural and Media Studies and the social sciences. Academically, he has published on the animation industry in Wales and approaches to social memory. He claims to be a card carrying member of the Politically Correct, a secret cadre bent on ruling the entire world and all human thought.
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